Shifted Positions
by Spartan322
Summary: When Hiccup and Toothless crash in another failed attempt of Hiccup's glider, an unusual situation arises, and both Hiccup and Toothless have to figure what truly happened.
1. Prologue

**Hey readers, so I'll first say thanks you for giving this fanfic a try. Now let's start off with this seems to be a new twist, one which I've not seen on here before. Now before I say anything else I will have to say (and will only say once) that I do not own HTTYD. I doubt I will need to point that out later, so unless I get in trouble, I'll omit it out cause it's implied.**

 **Also, this is my first legitimate original fanfic, so I hope you like it.**

 **So without further ado, I give you…Shifted Positions.**

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Prologue

A black figure streaked across the sky, black leather streaking high over the ocean below, with a young man strapped to his back. The young man was excited, for he may have finally perfected his small machine.

Hiccup, as he was known by his home, was a local apprentice for the village he called Berk, and more than that, he was now considered the pride of the village, who most in once called him 'Useless'. But not anymore, not after he befriended a dragon and took down the fiercest and ruthless enemy of the Vikings that even they could not face alone. The Red Death, an abomination of a dragon, was killed by him, as he made it pay for the crimes committed against both Viking and dragon alike, and in thus bringing peace between them.

Four years later, and with a Viking village packed with dragons and Vikings alike, he was now given the opportunities Viking before were never given, the freedom that few people were ever able to receive.

So what was the first thing Hiccup did? Well, being an inventive blacksmith apprentice, 'apprentice' barely withstanding, who loved risks, he obviously had to put himself in a good amount of danger. So the first thing he did was create a small contraption that allowed him to glide alongside his Night Fury and best friend, Toothless, who honestly, was very apprehensive after the countless failures of previous ideas incarnate. Though they both thought that as long as they were high enough to not hit the ground after dropping off anytime soon, they would be fine.

"Alright bud, another go won't hurt." As he patted the shadow dragon, who merely warbled uncomfortably, knowing full heartedly this probably won't end well.

"Here we go" he sighed happily as he prepped the latches and gears of Toothless' recently added self-gliding tail, that Toothless reluctantly agreed, and removed the straps holding him permanently on his dark friend. And he jumped.

As he fell a short distance, he opened the small, thin device on his back using a strap, releasing leathery wings strapped to his back, which held him rather well as he glided near Toothless…before he heard a loud clang and started twirling downwards towards an island that just recently appeared in the ocean.

"Ahhh, Toothleeeessss!"

As he glided down, he looked back to see a worried Toothless trying to dive down, his tail giving him difficulty to glide down, not built to handle diving properly yet. He eventually was diving with Hiccup to the side, attempting to bring him to his back and out of a dive, so they would both survive the impending crash landing. As Hiccup decided it was probably better to let this piece crash and he live so he released a safety latch he installed, after getting caught in previous less successful attempts, often in trees.

As he released the latch, he was moving closer to the new closest collection of wings he could find, and tried to jump onto his back.

As he reached his friends saddle, Hiccup unsuccessfully attempted to latch himself on and pulled the levers so his trusty stirrup pedals would work again. As he did so, he noticed how, due to the dragon's abuse of the tail because it couldn't dive, it was jammed, pedals barely influencing the prosthetic.

"Ah great, the gods just hate me don't they?" replying sarcastically to the multiple fails as they spun out of control down towards the collection of trees on the island below before Toothless knocked Hiccup slightly out of the saddle, threw himself around, and held on for his friend's life.

* * *

A large house on the inside, where a small kid was drawing up on the table near the back of the room before getting up, hearing the commotion going on outside, he quickly ran to the door to open it.

As he pulled back, he saw a Monstrous Nightmare roll its head towards him, seeing the open door, it prepared a blast at the boy sitting inside. But it instead hit the door as it closed, bursting the frame of the door into flames as the boy turned around, leaning against the door.

"Dragons." The boy replied as if it weren't already obvious to him.

He then opened the door and proceed to roll out, around the darkened village, which was then lit with many torches, as the village was being raided by all kinds of vicious dragons. The Vikings surround him fighting just as viciously as the 'beasts' that were invading the island.

But as he ventured further from the home he was nearly melted in, a large fireball struck nearby, knocking the small guy on his back.

"YAAAAARRRHH! Mornin!" as someone ran from the kid.

He got back up, dipping and dodging the attacking dragons.

 _"_ What are you doing here?!"

"Get Inside!"

"What are you doing out?!"

Then he was picked up by the back of his fur vest by a large burly man with a red beard strung from his face, hanging in braids.

"Hiccup?!" the large man scowled. "What is he doing ou-?! What are you doing out?! Get inside!" as he shoved Hiccup off to a place safer then where the large man was standing.

Hiccup, as he rolled from the momentum provided by the large man, ran, avoiding as many confrontations as possible, until he got to the blacksmith shop just a short distance away.

Inside the shop, fitting an apron on.

"Ah! Nice of you to join the party! I thought you'd been carried off!" the blond haired, half handed large man inside responded with.

"What, who me? Nah, come on! I'm waaaay too muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all...this." as he tried to attempt a proud muscle flex with his bony arm after fixing a large hammer on the wall.

"Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?" he retorted, as he continued on the work in his hand at the moment.

At this time, Hiccup started working on heating up the furnace, as he placed bent weapons resting on top of the coals. The heat built until the weapons were glowing red and then Hiccup walked off to the edge, noting the burning building and a few passing teens with a large barrel and a few buckets. As they went by.

As they picked up the buckets and put out the smaller fires, Hiccup marveled at the jobs the other teens, staring specifically at the blonde girl in the center for the one second he had looking before they passed by. Then the large blonde brute inside the forge picked him up and swung him over.

"Oh, come on. Let me out, please? I need to make my mark."

"Oh, you've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places!" as the blonde man known as Gobber poked him in the shoulder with his recently equipped tong hand.

"Please, two minutes. I'll kill a dragon. My life will get infinitely better. I might even get a date."

"You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe, you can't even throw one of these!" as Gobber listed the objects in mind and on his right hand, then picked up a bola, which was then yanked out of his hand as a Viking threw it in the background.

"Okay, fine, but this will throw it for me" as he patted a large chunk of wood that immediately shoots up on the pat and throws a bola right at a Viking waiting outside the smithy.

"See, now this right here is what I'm talking about." As he gestured at the now open jumble of wood and metal that launched up.

"Mild calibration issue—"

"Don't you—no—Hiccup, if you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all…this" gesturing to the scrawny boy.

"But you just pointed to all of me!"

The argument over Hiccup's purpose continued for another minute before he settled into simply sharpening a blade before Gobber decided he was needed and fitted an axe to this prosthetic

"Man the fort, Hiccup. They need me out there…" as he then turns for one more second. "Stay. Put. There. You know what I mean. AGHH" as he ran out to battle, leaving Hiccup in the center of the shop.

He then decided to pull out his contraption with the 'mild calibration issue' and proceeded to find a clear vantage point, preparing the machine for the perfect shot.

"Come on, Gimme something shoot at, gimme something to shoot at." As he searched for a target before he heard a banshee shriek right before a blue and orange fire raged on a nearby catapult. Taking quick aim, Hiccup fired, landing the hit on the target with a loud 'thwack' before he heard the beast he hit fall.

"Oh, I hit it! YES! I HIT IT! Did anybody see that?" as he did a quick celebration in back of his machine before a Monstrous Nightmare arrived behind him.

"Except for you" he drawled out sarcastically before he took off in a run, screaming, until he got to a wooden pole larger then him, and ran behind it, watching the flames surround him, but none touch him before they died down. He hid there until the large red bearded man that picked him up earlier smack the dragon away, right before the support Hiccup was hiding behind gave out to the flames, watching the bucket of fire above roll down, destroying a net, letting a few Deadly Nadders fly off with some sheep.

Staring down at the messy he was involved with.

"Sorry, dad."

As he watched the remaining Nadders leave he blurted out "Ok, but I hit a Night Fury." Before his dad picked him up by his collar and dragged him behind, his son insisting he actually hit the darkened beast he was aiming for.

"Let's get search party out there, before it—"

"STOP! Just…stop…" the large man said finally, complaining of Hiccup's tendency to damage the village while it was near winter and the village's need for food to which Hiccup sarcastically retorted "Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't ya think?"

"This isn't a joke, Hiccup!"

A short argument continued for another moment before Hiccup's father sent him off to his house with Gobber, with a few teens nearby making some cracks at him.

As he reached his house, he started complaining about his father's inability to listen and his weak stature when Gobber decided to tell him that it's Hiccup's mind that's the issue. With Hiccup disappointed in Gobber's lack of regard, and attempting to go in his house, but holding for a second. As Gobber then states "Stop trying to be something you're not."

"I just want to be one of you guys." As he entered the house.

But instead of following his father's direction, Hiccup rushes towards the back of his house, shoving the door open and rushing towards the forest beyond.

Hours passed, near into the morning without Hiccup finding his prize, and searching through the forest, marking where he was in his notebook, before he the doubt sets in, combined with bits of anger.

"Oh, the gods hate me..." He pouted starting up a rock.

"Some people lose their knife or their mug. No, not me. I manage to lose an ENTIRE DRAGON?!" as he slapped a branch, which then whipped back, slapping in the face, as he realized that something wasn't right about the look of this tree.

And then he realized, maybe this was it, maybe he finally found it.

* * *

 **Sorry for the possible awkwardness, if you looked at my profile you'll see 'Trust is Received' going on as well, and writing in third person after writing in first person is odd. Also, I'd like to ask if maybe this was too drawn out, I feel maybe I filled this up a bit much, but I wanted to start off with a good connection between them, and I feel this drawn out time was the only way to get it right. Also, I'm now writing two fanfics at once (and plan for more when I finish at least one of them, or at least slow down work majorly on one) so I might be a little less consistent with chapters.**

 **Lastly, review if you get the chance, I'd like to know if you liked or dislike anything, and if you liked the story, a fav and follow would be nice if you could spare it.**


	2. Whos?

**Hey readers, so I'll tell you a little about what I'm doing with this story before I start the chapter. I'm gonna try to write this story while writing Trust is Received, which means both stories are going to take longer (but that means more thought out, at least the optimist has something, right?), so what I'm gonna do is post a new chapter at least every month, and if I can spare it with this story, maybe post a new chapter every week, but I do have a kind of busy life right now, so who knows.**

 **Next up, I hope you like this story, and this chapter will probably answer a lot of questions that you could have (unless you've made successful guesses, in which case, congratulations, I have nothing to give you, but I'll compliment you on your prediction skills)**

 **Also, for that one guest (and probably others who think similar), I can't directly reply to your comment, so I'll put it here: I did that on purpose, it emphasizes the upcoming confusion, and also, I feel I needed to get you in the right mindset to understand moving from the first movie, to be honest, maybe a lot of it could be skipped, but then the following chapters would make less sense. But here is where the actual plot starts, so I wonder if you can see what I'm doing.** **J**

 **Also, I'm posting very early in the schedule for this chapter because the previous chapter (and summary) purposely throws people off and doesn't tell anything about where this story is heading, this chapter will make sure that you understand and will tell the audience whether they should continue reading. However, I will refrain from repeating this again, the next chapter will be between another week to another month away from this one.**

 **So without further ado…the next chapter**

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Chapter 1: Whos'?

Hiccup climbed down the slope made of dug out dirt, where he suddenly found the body of a black beast, laying on its side, but he quickly ducked before he could get a good look. After a few seconds of hiding, he re-peaks his head over the cover of dirt he was behind slowly. He saw a large black beast with its wings stretched out inside of a tangled mess of rope and its legs wrapped and hanging from its body.

Hiccup stared in awe of the creature before he brought out a knife in fear, slowly turning it to anger. He climbs down, hid behind a rock for a moment before walking out, astonished with himself over his capture of the most notorious dragon known to Vikings.

"Oh wow, I…I did it…OH I did it, this…this fixes everything, yes I have brought down this mighty-" but he gets cut off when the 'mighty beast' moved after Hiccup stuck his leg on it. Hiccup flinches back to the rock before holding out the knife in fear, watching the beast breathe before it slowly opens its eyes.

Hiccup notes something strange about the beast, its eyes aren't slit, though he puts it off as nothing. He prepares to strike it down, waving the knife around before he starts his speech.

"I'm gonna kill you dragon, I'm gonna…I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father. I'm a Viking. I am a Viking!" but as he prepares his knife over his head, he notices something very strange as he opened his eyes, staring into the dragon's.

He notices the dragon looks fearful, but more than that, it looks upset, almost as if it could cry. It wasn't flailing like a regular beast, it was just sitting there, giving what Hiccup could only see as a guilt trip.

He stared into its eyes for a long time, before he decide he couldn't kill it.

"I did this." As he drops his hand to his side, and slowly starts treading away, except guilt pulls more at him. In that moment, he decides he needs to free the dragon from its captivity he instilled upon it, guiled into helping the dragon free.

Hiccup cut the rope, and as he finished his last cut, he saw the dragon pounce on him, holding him to the ground. He was scared for a second before the dragon started looking happy and started licking him.

While Hiccup choked up from the saliva being poured on him from the dragon, he tried pushing the beast off. He wasn't sure how to react to a dragon being more kind to him than any Viking he knew. Even more, the Night Fury was confused, it didn't understand what was going on, and why Hiccup almost killed him, and what was so familiar about this situation, and why he was on Berk?

That's when the Night Fury got an idea, it realized what was going on, and why he felt smaller and especially why Hiccup looked young. It was because he was reliving his first experience with Hiccup, it was the only thing that makes sense seeing how hard he hit the tree…except he just changed the sequence, which to Toothless, made little sense. Maybe the dream is letting him control it.

Then Toothless realized what happened to Hiccup…he fainted. Toothless decided that this time, he was going to act as comforting to Hiccup as possible, at least it be made more enjoyable. So he wrapped his body, specifically his wings, around his limped friend, trying to be as comforting as possible for when he woke.

A few hours passed, and Toothless just stayed with Hiccup, eventually taking a nap with his dead-like companion propped up, laying upon his stomach. Eventually, when Hiccup woke, he started believing he was blinded after seeing a Night Fury. Only when he reached for the wing membrane and it slowly lifted did he believe otherwise. At the same time, the scrawny boy looked back to see the Night Fury with its green eyes affectionately looking back at him.

He was freaked by the dragon before him, he skidded to the rock opposing him. It made no sense to Hiccup, why was the dragon sparing him. In fact, why was the dragon being kind, almost affectionate, to him?

"Why?" he asked himself sadly. Toothless understood and tried to provide a kind head-butt to Hiccup's chest as the answer, as if he could interpret that. But as far as Hiccup could tell, it was a threat and backed away from his original rock.

Toothless realized that Hiccup wasn't feeling the same companionship, not yet, and decided to back off, there was no way he'd return the feeling, not yet.

Toothless, after freaking Hiccup, sat on his haunches and watched the freaked twig boy back away ever slower, rising as he did so. Toothless may have understood, but was saddened by the way Hiccup acted. Hiccup noticed the despair in the dragon's eyes when he looked back and felt guilty for his fear, but he needed to get home. It was too dark to be out this late, and he was freaked by a dragon that nearly "licked him to death."

As he ran home, the dragon deciding to give his not yet rider some space, he felt guilt for upsetting the dragon, he felt the sadness in its eyes.

 _What does it want with me? What is it doing? And why didn't it kill me? Does it care?_ As Hiccup's head burned with questions from the nonsense. A dragon, a Night Fury, most notorious and deadly dragon known, Lightning and Death itself, not only let him live, it outright licked him as if he was a hatchling. Was it poisoning him? That look in its eyes said otherwise. But Hiccup didn't know what this was about, but he knew that whatever just happened, it proved…he couldn't kill a dragon.

* * *

Hiccup rose from his position, laying on the ground cover in leaves, all over his current attire. He was in the forest of the island he and Toothless smacked into.

"That tail makes for some poor diving, nearly drove down the trees…Uh bud, could you get up?" As he tapped the Night Fury's side.

The dragon woke, not understanding what was going on, but realizing something was under him. It immediately startled up, rushed away from Hiccup, and growled at him, showing all his originally sheathed teeth.

"Whoa Toothless, what's the matter bud?" Hiccup said, but the dragon didn't care, it was coming closer to him. It smelled something akin to iron, common Viking weapons, and prepared to attack Hiccup.

"Bud, calm down, what's the matter with you?" He wondered before the dragon prepared a blast at Hiccup, but he dodged as it splashed against a tree just behind, knocking Hiccup fully to the ground.

"TOOTHLESS!" he screamed as the dragon ran backwards, trying to fly away, but as it did so, it noticed the broken leather and metal on his tail, which made him fall to the ground. As he fell, he landed in a small valley with a river just off the side of the center, leading from a small lake to a tall drop, which lands in the ocean. Hiccup tried climbing down after his 'supposed' dragon companion. As soon as he came close, the dragon went from laying in slight pain to aggressive in seconds. It was preparing a second blast, to which Hiccup slowly backed away from, and as it left the dragon's mouth, Hiccup again dodged it, and this time, the blast was too far to affect Hiccup.

Hiccup knew something was up, it's not every day your best friend attacks you? There was that Blue Oleander incident, but he friend wasn't specifically targeting anything and it was simply sneezes, this was definitely not a sneeze, it seemed entirely intentional.

Before Hiccup could figure it out though, the dragon started running towards the lake, still not understanding the flight problem, it tried to fly just after it crashed. Eventually, as it reached the lake, which was contained inside a steep valley of its own, he stopped struggling to fly, he was worsening injuries and there was no hope of getting out that way, and as he saw, the way he went was blocked, no possible way to get up. He was forced to face the thin, leather wearing human, and prepared a third blast, which missed again. How was he missing all these shots? There was no way a human wearing armor would react that way to him, could he? It didn't matter, he had to get away from or kill the human after him, or horrible things could happen.

As he prepared to charge the human, he realized, he was also wearing a leathery object, but having no idea what it was on his back or tail, he decided to try and rip them off, but he could only manage the tail, which didn't stand long in its current state.

While that went on, Hiccup got very close, and decided to try and wrap his head around one of the few things he'd ever see happen just before him…Toothless was attacking him, running from him, and was destroying the flight equipment… _this isn't Toothless, something is worse than wrong. He is acting as if…as if he were feral_.

That made no sense to Hiccup, _How could he be feral? He was fine until…we crashed._ And that's when it clicked for Hiccup, that crash, it must have messed with him, made him feral for some reason. Toothless lost all sense after that crash, and that was the only thing to make sense.

 _I need him to see me again, I can't go on without him, and he obviously can't go on without me. And a busted tail fin is not helping._

With that, Hiccup decided that he should take his time. Rushing a feral dragon is probably not such a great plan.

As the dragon ripped off the last of the tail, he started running at Hiccup trying to get through him, and Hiccup decided he can't help the dragon right now, he'd have to reintroduce himself to Toothless, at least to reaffirm his best friend, so he let the crazed dragon through without a fight. The dragon needed time to himself and Hiccup knew it.

As Hiccup moved out of the dragon's way, letting it through, the dragon started questioning this stranger's actions, but he had no time to dwell on it, he had to get somewhere safe. He couldn't climb the valley, he already tried that, he knew he couldn't, so he opted for getting to the drop maybe he could make it home from there. But as he made his way to the waterfall by the edge of the valley, he saw it was an outlet that fell to the ocean, no possible route home, and he couldn't fly higher, and if he chose to go lower, he was trapped even worse with the leather 'twig' who could take him down again.

The dragon decided that, if wanted the best advantage, that he should only jump if the human got too close or was too threating.

Then something hit the dragon, this terrain makes no sense, he didn't recall ever seeing this valley, and the current outlet was nowhere near the spot he fell from, before being knocked out…so where was he?

It couldn't have been the Viking that dragged him, he was too puny, but he did have the Viking under his paw, but that only raised more questions. And then another question formed from there…wasn't he shorter? The dragon didn't mind being taller, but something wasn't right his body, and now he couldn't feel his missing fin, which would be painful if he lost it.

And then he panicked with understanding his flight issue. His tail fin is gone, he can't fly. He can't fly for food, he can't fly for help, he can't even fly for enjoyment, and it was all gone. This dragon could no longer lift off the ground, he knew now what that meant…death.

While this went on, Hiccup observed the panicked, and then upset Night Fury. _He's acting as if he forgot about his tail, if he was feral, why doesn't he remember anything?_

Hiccup then felt upset for his friend, who was wallowing in self-pity, a poor attempt made to hide. Hiccup wanted to comfort his friend, to help him realize. So what does 'Hiccup the Crazy' do? He attempts to confront the dragon.

The dragon, so focused on it self-pity, doesn't notice the stalking boy until he is right beside him, sitting by him. That set this dark figure to walk further from Hiccup, but he notes the non-malicious intent of the young man, and begins to get curious.

 _What does he want?_

* * *

 **So I hope you, as a reader, are liking this story, because I've legitimately attempted to go off the rails, at least slightly. As you can, the second 'group' is who I more focused on then the first in this chapter. I bet you can guess what I did to these two.**

 **Anyway, if you liked it, a fav, a follow, and a review are very helpful, and if you have anything you'd like to say (outside of flaming please), I'd be happy to hear it.**


	3. Author's Note: Apologies

**Sorry for those who like this story, I hate to do this, but due to the fact that school is in the way (just finished up a few exams, and more incoming) I've had writer's block for this for a few weeks, combined with more motivation for Trust is Received currently, I'll be putting this story on hold for a bit. I'll try to get something presentable done next month, and hopefully I do, but I'm not sure I can, this month has been rather taxing and I'll be lucky if I can get Trust is Received updated before the beginning of next month. With that said, I can say this will allow me to finish the stories up quicker and focus better. Which means (hopefully) the wait will be worth it. That should also mean that both stories can only get better. I hope you understand.**


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